Department for Transport

Borders Railway Line: Carlisle

lord steel of aikwood: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by the Prime Minister on 5 September (HC Deb, col 157), whether they will contribute (1) funding, and (2) any other support towards extending the Borders rail route to Carlisle.

baroness sugg: The UK Government is committed to working with the Scottish Government to drive forward the innovative, cross-border Borderlands Deal. We will be working with local partners to agree a deal which will see significant investment to transform the local economies within the Borderlands area. We can confirm that the Borderlands have sought funding for feasibility work on the extension of the Borders Railway as part of their Borderlands Growth Deal submission to both governments on Friday 28 September.

West Coast Partnership Rail Franchise

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the cost of Department for Transport officials and consultants preparing the bid documentation for the West Coast Partnership.

baroness sugg: The total contingent staffing costs within the Department for Transport for preparing the bid and contractual documentation for the West Coast Partnership was £295,475. £6,360,726 (including VAT where applicable) was spent on consultants. This reflects efforts required to develop a robust commercial position and benefits to passengers whilst at the same time securing the right Shadow Operator for the £50bn investment in HS2.

Rail Review

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the terms of reference of the review of rail led by Keith Williamswill include rail freight; if not, why not; and if so, why rail freight was not mentioned in their announcement on 20 September.

baroness sugg: The Terms of Reference of the Rail Review, published on Thursday 11 October, do include rail freight. The Government fully supports a successful rail freight industry and recognises the sector’s contribution to the environment, communities and the economy.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what platform height above the rail is specified for the new HS2 trains and HS2 line platforms; what is the standard platform height for Network Rail stations likely to be served by HS2 trains; andfor each type of platform height how many will achieve level access.

baroness sugg: The new HS2 stations, platforms will be circa 1115mm above rail height. The existing Network Rail stations platforms are nominally 915mm above rail height but for historical reasons there can be a variation between different stations. HS2 trains will be equipped with a moveable gap filler that deploys automatically before the doors open and provides level access between the train and platform at HS2 stations. Manual boarding ramps will also be provided on board the train and at stations, which will be deployed by a member of staff when needed to provide step-free access from platform to train for the range of platform heights encountered at Network Rail stations.

Railways: Standards

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Secretary of State for Transport on 13 September (HC170781), why they intend to diverge from the rules of the European Railway Agency; and what benefits they anticipate will come from any such divergence.

baroness sugg: The Government intends to create the ability to diverge from specifications set by the European Railway Agency, where there is a need to do so, but the UK will be still aligned with European standards. Any decisions about diverging from these rules will depend on their future content and whether they support the UK’s interests and meet the needs of the industry and passengers. These decisions will be carefully managed so that the impacts and benefits are fully assessed. An anticipated benefit of divergence is that HS2 platforms could be built at a higher level than the standards currently prescribed in the European framework. This would provide level boarding and improved accessibility for users of HS2.

Aviation: Standards

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to diverge from the rules of the European Aviation Safety Agency following Brexit; and if so, what benefits they anticipate will come from such divergence.

baroness sugg: As stated in the White Paper that set out the Government’s proposal for the UK’s future relationship with the EU, we are seeking a comprehensive air transport deal that seeks continued participation within the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) system. However, the UK’s future participation will be a matter for negotiations. EU safety regulations will be brought into domestic law by means of the powers in the EU (Withdrawal) Act. This means that after exit, the same safety rules will continue to apply. The UK is committed to maintaining current levels of safety and will continue to strive to improve on these after leaving the EU. Being outside the EU will not change the UK’s approach to aviation safety.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Gaming Machines

lord chadlington: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 1 May (HL7099), what assessment they have made of the responses to the consultation on proposals for changes to gaming machines and social responsibility measures; when they intend to announce the implementation date for the reduced £2 stake for Fixed Odds Betting Terminals; and whether they plan to make such an announcement in their forthcoming Budget statement.

lord ashton of hyde: The draft Statutory Instrument needed to reduce the maximum stake on sub-category B2 machines to £2 was notified to the European Commission in September under the requirements of the EU Technical Standards and Regulations Directive. We intend to lay the draft affirmative regulations before Parliament, for the usual process of approval, in the Autumn term.Questions about gambling participation are included in the large scale English and Scottish Health Surveys and an alternative omnibus survey for Wales. The Combined Health Survey for England, Scotland and Wales 2016 results were published on 6 September 2018 and can be found at https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/survey-data/Gambling-behaviour-in-Great-Britain-2016.pdf. A copy of the survey is attached.In addition, the Gambling Commission collects participation data through smaller scale quarterly telephone and online surveys and monitors underage gambling through its young persons survey. The latest information can be found at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Levels-of-participation-and-problem-gambling/Gambling-participation-and-problem-gambling.aspx. A copy is attached.



Gambling Behavior 2016 
(PDF Document, 2.43 MB)




Gambling participation 2017
(PDF Document, 4.04 MB)

Treasury

Pre-payment

baroness goudie: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will conduct a review of providers of pre-payment plans, and of the sales practices of such providers, with a view to appropriate regulation of this sector.

lord bates: I have interpreted this question as relating to the pre-paid funeral plan market. The government launched a call for evidence into the regulation of the pre-paid funeral plan market in June 2018, having concluded that the current framework of self-regulation is not sufficient to ensure the fair treatment of consumers. We are currently reviewing the submissions and a response will be published in due course.

Probate

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they made of theefficiency of the probate processing by HMRC.

lord bates: HMRC is responsible for processing Inheritance Tax accounts, required before probate can be applied for. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently commissioned the Office of Tax Simplification to look at ways in which the overall process can be simplified.

Inheritance Tax

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government, from the date they are first received, what is the current average time taken by HMRC to agree the IHT400 return calculations for estates in the bands (1) up to £1 million, (2) from £1–5 million, and (3) from £5–10 million; and in each band, what is the average time taken to issue a clearance.

lord bates: HMRC cannot provide average times or break the data down into bands for the value of the estate as this information is not readily available and could only be compiled at disproportionate cost. Since 6 April 2018 over 95% of IHT400 returns submitted to HMRC were processed within 15 working days of receipt.

Inheritance Tax

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average time taken by the Valuation Office to provide advice to HMRC on estates valued in the bands (1) up to £1 million, (2) from £1–5 million, and (3) from £5–10 million.

lord bates: The Valuation Office Agency does not hold the information requested. In 2017-18, the VOA cleared its initial appraisals of inheritance tax cases, referred to it by HMRC, within an average of five working days, meeting its target.

Inheritance Tax

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current average time taken to provide a full and final response to executors once the Valuation Office has provided its advice to HMRC.

lord bates: HMRC does not hold this information. Once Valuation Office Agency has provided advice, HMRC seek to write to the executor within 15 days of receiving that advice.

Electronic Funds Transfer: Fraud

lord chadlington: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that funds obtained by authorised push payment fraud are traced and recovered.

lord bates: The Government takes all fraud extremely seriously and recognises the harm that authorised push payment scams can cause. The Government has created the Joint Fraud Taskforce, which brings together government, the banks and law enforcement to develop a collective response to fraud. The objectives of the Taskforce are to protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. Furthermore, the government has established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users. The PSR has convened an Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams Steering Group, made up of an equal number of both industry and consumer group representatives. On 28 September 2018 this steering group published a draft voluntary code which sets out the circumstances in which payment services providers (e.g. banks) would be responsible for reimbursing APP fraud victims who have acted appropriately. This draft voluntary code is an important step forwards towards better and more consistent protection for consumers and standards for industry.